Former coal-burning plant looking for a new life is generous Albany spender

ALBANY — A former coal-burning power plant in the Finger Lakes looking for a second life has spent almost $500,000 on lobbying in Albany and donations to Gov. Andrew Cuomo as it seeks to repower with natural gas.

The Greenidge Generating Station, located along the shores of Seneca Lake in the village of Dresden, Yates County, was mothballed in 2011. The plant’s operators, Greenidge Generation LLC, want to convert the 100-megawatt plant to natural gas and operate it during periods of peak energy grid demand. They also aim to build a 5-mile pipeline. Greenidge is still awaiting final sign off by state and federal officials, but could be operating within a few weeks.

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Over the last two years, the owners of the Greenidge Generating Station have showered Albany with money. Greenidge Generation LLC has spent $376,400 in the last 18 months, according to state lobbying expenditures. And the plant’s parent company, Atlas Holdings, has been a generous donor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with a total of at least $75,000 in donations to Cuomo’s campaign. The money came in three $25,000 donations from Atlas and the company’s two principals, Andrew M. Bursky and Timothy J. Fazio, elections records show.

The lobbying effort has included outreach to members of Cuomo’s executive branch, state lawmakers and Yates County officials, records show.

In September, Greenidge was named a finalist for $2 million in state funding from the Regional Economic Development Council for the Finger Lakes. In July, Greenidge officials were granted a closed-door meeting with Department of Public Service officials. Greenidge officials are trying to fast-track their application and had a hearing this week with a Department of Public Service judge to make their case.

The plant has already received a necessary air permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation. It could begin operating by the end of the year, likely burning biomass such as wood, spokesman Michael McKeon said. The plant would largely run on natural gas once a pipeline is installed.

If the plant becomes operational, McKeon said it will provide up to 15 full-time jobs. Operators are still negotiating annual tax payments with area municipalities, said McKeon, who is also a lobbyist for the project. He declined to provide a figure for those tax payments, but said they will be in excess of the $100,000 annual payment the plant had paid when it was mothballed in the last few years.

“The bottom line is that this is a plant that has strong support within Yates County,” he said.

The plant's intention is to operate during periods of peak power demand, to take pressure off the grid, but also during other times when its power can bid competitively into the state’s energy markets, he said. The plant would fill a void left by some of the power sources in the region expected to come offline in the coming years, including the coal-burning Dunkirk and Huntley power plants, as well the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear facility, McKeon said.

“There’s no doubt there is a capacity need,” he said.

Environmental groups have opposed the project, arguing it increases the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. Cuomo has set a goal of doubling the state’s reliance on renewable power sources by 2030. Environmentalists argue that the plant runs contrary to those goals, particularly the Reforming Energy Vision plan to increase wind and solar energy sources throughout the state.

“The Greenidge plant is a regressive fossil fuel dinosaur,” said Sandra Steingraber, co-founder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York.